In “The Last of Us” recap, Joel, Tess and Ellie start to make their way through Boston but it doesn’t take long before they realize that escaping the infected will be more difficult than anyone imagined…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
So just as a reminder from the first episode of “The Last of Us,” I’ve never played the video games and don’t know every little nuance that goes along with the story. That said, a number of interviews with the showrunners, which includes original game creator Neil Druckmann, have been posted and that started to give me a better sense of not only the source material but how the series has deviated from it thus far.
As an avid reader of “The Walking Dead” comic book, it was very easy to pick out all the ways that the TV series changed things from the original story. Some of those moves were frustrating, others changes were welcomed.
In many ways, I’m glad that I don’t know as much about “The Last of Us” games because that means everything in this story is fresh to me and I don’t have any preconceived notions about where the series should be heading, who will live or who will die. That means I get to be surprised or shocked — much like a pivotal moment that happens in episode 2.
The newest episode also gives a deeper look at where the Cordyceps infection started — or at least where it really started to spread — before the fungus eventually enveloped the entire world. Apparently, none of that is featured in the game and while that particular series of events that takes place 20 years earlier, it only hints at the origins of the Cordyceps infection but doesn’t reveal exactly how it started much less how it really began to spread like wildfire.
With that said, let’s get to our full recap for the latest episode of “The Last of Us” titled “Infection”…
Patient Zero
The episode starts back in 2003 in Indonesia where a woman named Ibu Ratna is having lunch when a couple of military officers interrupt and insist she come with them. She’s not in any trouble but instead they require her expertise considering she’s a professor of mycology — the study of fungi — at the University of Indonesia.
It seems the military are at a loss over something that Dr. Ratna might be able to help them with.
After arriving at a lab, the officers ask her to inspect a specimen under a microscope. It only takes her a split second to recognize the sample as Ophiocordyceps — a particular genus of fungi that typically takes hold in insects with one particular subset known as Ophiocordyceps unilateralis or the zombie-ant fungus.
That particular type of fungus can essentially take over the body and mind of an insect, most commonly found in ants, with the sole purpose of spreading spores to perpetuate the fungi to more hosts.
After Ibu Ratna identifies the fungus, she’s told that this was found in the body of a human.
She scoffs at that suggestion but Ophiocordyceps can’t survive in humans — until now.
The military personnel have Ibu Ratna put on a protective suit and take her to a body that was infected by this particular fungus. She examines the body and finds that the person was bitten — and below the skin, the fungus has spread and created a shell like interior on the inside of the skin. Ibu Ratna then examines the body further by opening the mouth and placing a pair of forceps inside but what she withdraws is terrifying as a spool of fungus tentacles — still very much alive and seeking a new host.
She drops the forceps after being terrified by what she’s just seen.
After leaving the examination room, Ibu Ratna speaks with the military about this new fungal infection and discovers that the woman who was shot and killed started lashing out and acting violently towards her co-workers at a flour and grain plant where they were all employed.
Indonesia actually houses the largest flour plant in the world so it stands to reason that would be the source of the original Cordyceps fungus that survived long enough to infect humans.
To make matters worse, the military has no idea who bit the woman they shot and killed and there are 14 more workers from that same plant who have disappeared. In an effort to stop the spread of this deadly fungus, the military ask Ibu Ratna if she could help with a vaccine or some sort of medicine.
Sadly, she informs them that there is no cure for this kind of fungus.
Instead, she offers the only suggestion that might slow down the spread — and that’s bombing the entire town to ensure no fungus escapes. As further proof that she believes this is the only effective course of action, Ibu Ratna asks to return home to spend time with her family before the government inevitably follows her plans and destroys the entire city.
So we don’t learn exactly about Patient Zero but we get an idea where the Cordyceps infection started and what was done in an effort to try and stop it.
The Miracle Cure
Following a harrowing escape from the Boston Quarantine Zone, which involved Joel killing a guard to ensure he didn’t in turn kill Ellie — the 14-year-old girl he was tasked with taking to exchange for a car battery that would allow him to reach his brother —the group stopped to sleep for the night in a burned out building in the city. Well Ellie slept — Joel and his partner Tess mostly just stared at her and wondered how she was bitten by somebody infected yet she hasn’t gotten sick or transformed into one of the grotesque creatures roaming the world these days.
After Ellie wakes up, Joel and Tess are ready for some answers not only about her condition but why she’s so valuable to the Firefly resistance group that they were willing to risk just about everything to ensure she escaped the quarantine zone.
Joel isn’t convinced that Ellie won’t eventually turn and he believes putting a bullet in her now and returning to the quarantine zone is the best plan of action. Tess disagrees because if Ellie hasn’t turned already, she’s not going to turn.
After eating some breakfast, Tess insists that Ellie explain to them why she’s such a valuable asset to Marlene — the leader of the Fireflies in Boston — and the key to getting the car battery they need to drive out west. Tess explains that she and Joel aren’t good people — they’re in this for themselves so if Ellie wants their help, she needs to start giving up some information about why they’re protecting her.
“We don’t know what you’re worth if we don’t know what we have.”
~ Tess
Despite Marlene making her promise she wouldn’t spill the secret, Ellie tells Joel and Tess that she was infected but the bite never turned her. After the Fireflies ran tests on her for several days, they realized that she might be immune to the infection, which could make her the key to unlocking a vaccine or a cure to the Cordyceps fungus that has effectively taken over most of humanity left on Earth.
Joel scoffs at her revelation because he’s heard all this before but Tess reminds him that it doesn’t matter much whether or not they believe Ellie is the cure — the Fireflies believe it and they’ll pay to get her back. That’s enough convincing for Joel to agree to continue traveling across the city to meet up with the Fireflies, who will then take Ellie and give him the car battery he requires.
On the way across the city — taking the long way to avoid the infected — Ellie can’t help but wonder if the stories she heard were true. She was told that the city outside of the quarantine zone was teeming with infected but that doesn’t seem to be the case. She’s also heard some of the infected can explode spores and launch them at you, which gets a laugh from Joel and Tess.
Another type of infected with fungus growing out of their heads that split open and they see like a bat doesn’t seem nearly as amusing because that one actually exists. In the distance, they all hear a shrieking sound from the infected that manages to scare all of them.
Tess eventually asks how Ellie managed to get bitten and she reveals that she broke into an old, abandoned mall in the quarantine zone that was strictly off limits. While inside, Ellie was bitten but obviously she managed to live through the ordeal.
The trio makes their way to an old hotel that’s been flooded but it serves as a path to get to the next place in the city where they need to go. After traveling up 12 flights of stairs, Joel and Tess realize that one of the paths has been closed off due to falling debris, which means they’re going to need to find another way across.
Tess volunteers to sneak through, which means Joel and Ellie are left to get to know each other.
Joel offers very little information to Ellie outside of telling her that he’s from Texas and he’s managed to kill a lot of the infected over the past 20 years. When Ellie asks about the man he killed last night, Joel doesn’t get a chance to answer before Tess returns with some unfortunate news.
As she leads them out through another pathway to an outside deck, Tess reveals that the infected have essentially taken over the downstairs courtyard, which is what they previously used when traveling across the city. It seems the infected used to stay in the deepest, darkest parts of the buildings but more and more people traveling through trying to reach the quarantine zone woke them up and now they’re sprawling outside like insects all feasting upon some fallen prey.
Tess then tells Ellie that the infected are more connected than she could possibly imagine. She explains that Cordyceps is like one giant mass of wires and stepping on one piece of fungus could awaken a herd of infected several miles away — and now that they’ve been alerted, they’ll come for you and know exactly where you were standing.
With the courtyard cut off, Joel says that they’ll now have to attempt to cut across the museum instead, which puts them in even more peril.
When they arrive, the museum has been overrun with Cordyceps fungus but Joel checks the tentacles and realizes that it’s all dried up, which means no messages will be relayed between the infected. Inside, the group starts moving quietly through the building until they come across a dead body that shocks Ellie.
They all soon realize that this person has been cut up and mauled but it doesn’t look like the typical bite marks from an infected. It appears something else did this — but it’s too late to go back now so Joel and Tess decide to push forward to get through the museum.
Joel instructs Ellie to stay silent because the infected — or more appropriately the “clickers” search by sound due to the fungal infection essentially eating away at their eyes and nose. This group of advanced infected move in sporadic patterns while making that strange clicking sounds, thus the nickname they’ve been given.
Upstairs, they move as quietly as possible but Joel and Tess soon realize that they’re not alone.
A moment later, a pair of clickers move into the room and start exploring around but without the benefit of sight or smell, the creature is effectively just feeling around for potential prey. Joel and Tess are hopeful to stay silent enough that the clickers just move on but when one of the creatures turns to face them Ellie sees that what was once a person has now transformed into a giant fungus exploding from head and face and she gasps.
That’s all the clicker needs to attack as Joel quickly tries to fire his weapon and back off the infected while Ellie is told to run and hide. She ducks down behind a display case from the museum while Joel and Tess try to lead the clickers away from her so they can be killed.
Joel fires several rounds into the clicker but the creature just keeps coming at him so he’s forced to escape, hide behind a wall and reload his gun before making a second attempt at killing it. Joel turns to face the clicker when he accidentally steps on the smallest piece of class and the infected rushes at him again.
This time, Joel unloads his weapon with several shots until the bullets rip through the fungus and get to whatever is left of the human brain. The creature falls dead on the floor as the second clicker turns back towards Joel.
Before he can fire a shot, Tess comes out of nowhere to slam an axe into the head of the infected and then Joel unloads a few more rounds to finish the clicker off.
The three of them escape the museum but outside Tess reveals she sprained her ankle while Ellie actually suffered another small bite on her arm, which once again convinces Joel that she’s going to turn and come after all of them. Tess refuses to believe that Ellie is going to transform into the infected so she tells Joel to back down before they all cross a small bridge that gets them to another building — one step closer to their final destination.
Click-Click Boom
Joel, Tess and Ellie make their way to the Massachusetts State House — easily recognizable by the giant golden dome that can be seen from virtually anywhere in Boston — but they soon discover that there’s no caravan awaiting their arrival.
Instead, they discover a truck outside covered in blood and the Fireflies are nowhere to be found. Ellie then spots a trail of blood leading inside the building, which forces all of them to follow.
It’s there they discover that the Fireflies are all dead — each of them shot in the head — but Joel soon discovers that at least one of them got infected, which led to all of them turning on each other.
“The healthy ones fought the sick ones. Everyone lost.”
~ Joel
With options running out, Joel suggests they all return to the quarantine zone and take Ellie back with them but Tess informs them both that she won’t be going back. A second later Ellie realizes that Tess is already infected.
Tess then reveals a bite mark on her collarbone from one of the clickers they battled in the museum. She’s already starting to feel the effects of the Cordyceps fungus with her hands twitching and the tentacles spreading underneath her skin. Meanwhile, Ellie’s wound is already closing, which means she might actually be the real deal as somebody immune to the deadly fungus.
Tess tells Joel that he needs to take Ellie with him and travel out west because she might really be the key to finding a cure and stopping this infection from spreading even further. As they’re talking, one of the dead Fireflies suddenly springs to life because he wasn’t all the way dead, which forces Joel to fire a shot and put him down for good.
Sadly, the falling body lands on more of the infected tentacles draped across the floor, which sends out a signal to the infected. A moment later, Joel peeks outside and sees that a horde of the infected are sprinting towards the building, which means they have less than a minute to escape.
Tess reacts by dumping drums of gasoline across the floor and telling Joel that he needs to leave, take Ellie with him, find Bill and Frank and save as many people as he can. There’s no long looks shared between the partners in a final moment to say goodbye because time is running out.
Joel quickly snatches Ellie and runs for the other end of the building to escape while Tess hears pounding on the outer door, which means the infected will be inside any minute. She grabs a lighter from her pocket as she prepares to light the entire building on fire except she can’t make a single spark.
The infected soon start pouring into the building and Tess stands perfectly still until she makes a noise trying to flick over her lighter, which alerts one of the Cordyceps creatures to turn towards her. Tess stays perfectly still as the infected creature moves towards her but instead of biting her, it just opens its mouth and kisses her while expelling several tentacles of the fungus.
Before she’s overtaken in the grosses way possible, Tess finally strikes a flame from her lighter before dropping on the ground where gasoline has now filled the floor. Outside, Joel and Ellie are running away when a huge explosion erupts and fireballs go shooting out of the windows.
The last remaining infected inside make it out of the door but soon fall to the ground after being burned up from the flames. The infected have been killed but that also means Tess is very much dead.
All Joel can do now is take Ellie with him to seek out Bill and Frank while continuing their journey westward bound across the United States.
“The Last of Us” returns for a new episode next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
